Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 2467 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • 19th Amendment: The six-week 'brawl' that won women the vote

    Three generations of activists marched, protested, lobbied, and campaigned for more than seven decades to win the right to vote for American women. In 1920, national and local activists worked to convince Tennessee legislators to support the 19th amendment and become the 36th and final state needed to ratify it. Local suffragists were the most visible forces, lobbying their representatives to support the amendment, while national activists built alliances, identified legislators known to take bribes, and exerted political pressure at all levels of government, including among presidential candidates.

    Read More

  • In Staten Island, A Burgeoning Youth-Led Movement For Social Justice Is Afoot

    The Young Leaders of Staten Island (YSLI) was created in Staten Island to fight for social justice after young residents of the borough felt the local response to George Floyd's murder was not enough. YSLI mobilized hundreds of protesters to march in Staten Island's largest public protest of 1,800 people. The group has demanded justice through police reform and beyond, hosting voter registration and census completion drives. Their efforts have resulted in 125 people registering for the census and 85 people to vote.

    Read More

  • States eye vote by mail, Oregon officials say it's safe and secure

    Officials in Oregon, where voters have voted by mail in statewide elections for decades, point to their successful system to counter Donald Trump’s claim that voting by mail is “rigged” and results could take “years.” Several precautions prevent voter fraud, including a signature verification system, unique tracking barcodes on every ballot, and voters can get alerts when their ballot is received and counted. Officials and academics who have studied the system say that fraud is exceedingly rare with current security measures, though states implementing the system for the first time could experience delays.

    Read More

  • How A COVID-19 ‘Rapid Response Team' In Chicago Is Working To Fix Decades Of Neglect In Black, Latinx Communities

    Spurred by the high concentration of COVID-19 deaths in Black and Latinx neighborhoods on Chicago's South and West sides, city government teamed with multiple community groups to form a Racial Equity Rapid Response Team to distribute protective gear, food, financial aid, and other help in the hard-hit neighborhoods. The help included more than 1 million masks, 6,000 boxes of food, 250,000 information flyers, laptops and free internet access, and $380,000 to help pay rent and utilities. The deaths and desperate need for help stem directly from decades of racial disparities in food and health care access.

    Read More

  • How Urban Planning Keeps Cities Segregated—and Maintains White Supremacy

    Urban planning policies can lead to greater racial segregation, sometimes intentionally. While older policies could be explicitly racist, today policies such as zoning, which designates land for residential or industrial use, effectively excludes communities of color, immigrants, and households with lower incomes. Residential segregation leads to education, income, and health disparities. Minneapolis ended single-family zoning so lots can be converted to more affordable duplexes and triplexes and is working towards requiring new apartment projects to reserve units for low- to moderate-income households.

    Read More

  • How Lithuanian farmers help preserve endangered bird

    A Lithuanian government program pays farmers to delay working in their fields in an effort to preserve the aquatic warbler, an endangered bird species. While there are 186 farmers who participate in the program, more work could be done to protect the birds around water bodies. Once farmers are able to cut their grass, they can bring their grass to a factory to make biofuel.

    Read More

  • Want More Housing? Ending Single-Family Zoning Won't Do It.

    Abolishing single-family zoning rules as an affordable-housing solution has failed in places such as Minneapolis and Oregon because their narrowly drawn reforms left other obstacles in place. Houston serves as an example of effective policies that promote "missing middle" housing – denser developments than detached houses – because it combined its lack of single-family zoning with a reduction in minimum lots sizes. The result is far more affordable housing than in other booming job markets. Lot-size restrictions are among several other rules that can frustrate the desire for more housing.

    Read More

  • Will Community Gardens Survive Pandemic Budget Cuts?

    The ability of community gardens to supply healthy food to those who might not have their basic needs met has grown in importance as coronavirus continues to spread across the United States. For example, the New Roots community gardening initiative in Salt Lake City helps nearly 150 refugee families raise food on plots, and about 86 percent of the gardeners report saving an average of $30 a week by growing their own food. However, the future of this program, and others around the country in New York City, Seattle, and Minneapolis, are uncertain as they face budget cuts from cities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Read More

  • From Rustbelt to Brainbelt

    Universities are a source of innovative economic activity for neighboring towns and cities. The entrepreneurial activity spurred by academic programs and the effect a large student body has on a college town's main street is significant. Cities become incubators for high-tech ideas that turn into money-making and employee-hiring companies and cities that retain college graduates can even refocus a city's failing economy like in the case of Pittsburg. Universities successfully make the case for investing in high-tech and innovative research centers to "jumpstart America."

    Read More

  • Waiting for water: On the Navajo Nation, long lines, scarce resources, a cry for solutions

    As the coronavirus spreads throughout the Navajo Nation, many people don’t have access to water to even wash their hands. For generations, the Navajo people have suffered with this lack of water infrastructure, but some solutions have been implemented. For example, the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health has built about 100 hand-washing stations and delivered them to homes in need. Many people are hopeful they will receive more funding to build a more robust water system, but the scale of the problem and the cost of building it are big challenges to overcome.

    Read More